# János Vaszary artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/janos-vaszary/
Profile generated: 2026-05-10T14:45:23.888Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1867-11-30
- Death date: 1939-04-19
- Nationality: Hungarian
- Common media: painting, graphic art

## About János Vaszary

János Vaszary (1867–1939) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist whose career spanned more than fifty years, from roughly 1887 until his death in 1939. Active during a period of major transformation in European art, Vaszary worked across painting and graphic media and is documented in leading reference works including Thieme/Becker, Vollmer, Bénézit, and the Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. He is sometimes cited under the French form of his name, Jean Vaszary, in international publications. Vaszary is represented in museum collections, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and his identity is firmly established through Getty ULAN, VIAF, and the Library of Congress Name Authority File. Collectors encounter his work at auction in European and international salerooms, where his long and productive career offers considerable variety in style and medium.

## Common works and media

Oil paintings on canvas and panel, watercolors, drawings, and graphic works are the most likely formats to appear in appraisal and auction contexts. Vaszary produced both figurative compositions and landscape subjects across his long career. Works range from smaller studies on paper to larger canvases.

## Market and appraisal context

János Vaszary maintains an active and well-documented secondary market. Appraisily's auction record index traces 59 lots from late 2009 through January 2026, with 39 carrying realized prices. The market is anchored by Central European salerooms — Virág Judit Gallery (Budapest), Koller Auctions (Zurich), and Nagyházi Gallery (Budapest) — and extends to international houses including Sotheby's, Christie's, Hôtel des Ventes de Monte-Carlo, and De Baecque & Associés. Liquidity has improved noticeably: nine priced lots appeared in the most recent 12-month window versus one in the prior period, suggesting renewed collector interest. Price dispersion is wide. Works on paper and smaller graphics typically realize in the hundreds to low thousands of euros, while important oil paintings from Vaszary's mature period (1920s–1930s) have achieved six-figure results, including €405,336 at Virág Judit Gallery in December 2022 for Beach in Alassio (1938) and CHF 290,000 at Koller Auctions the same month. Sotheby's sold Montmartre for €138,600 in November 2022. The interquartile range (€2,155–€100,000) and a median of €11,673 reflect a tiered market where medium, period, subject, and dimensions materially differentiate value.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

János Vaszary maintains an active and well-documented secondary market. Appraisily's auction record index traces 59 lots from late 2009 through January 2026, with 39 carrying realized prices. The market is anchored by Central European salerooms — Virág Judit Gallery (Budapest), Koller Auctions (Zurich), and Nagyházi Gallery (Budapest) — and extends to international houses including Sotheby's, Christie's, Hôtel des Ventes de Monte-Carlo, and De Baecque & Associés. Liquidity has improved noticeably: nine priced lots appeared in the most recent 12-month window versus one in the prior period, suggesting renewed collector interest. Price dispersion is wide. Works on paper and smaller graphics typically realize in the hundreds to low thousands of euros, while important oil paintings from Vaszary's mature period (1920s–1930s) have achieved six-figure results, including €405,336 at Virág Judit Gallery in December 2022 for Beach in Alassio (1938) and CHF 290,000 at Koller Auctions the same month. Sotheby's sold Montmartre for €138,600 in November 2022. The interquartile range (€2,155–€100,000) and a median of €11,673 reflect a tiered market where medium, period, subject, and dimensions materially differentiate value.

### Appraisal notes

An Appraisily appraisal for a Vaszary work would combine these auction records with the client's photographs, measured dimensions, medium identification (oil on canvas versus watercolor, drawing, or graphic work), signature details, and condition report. Provenance documentation and any exhibition or publication history would further refine the comparable-lot selection. Because Vaszary's career spanned over five decades with documented stylistic evolution, period attribution — based on the work's date or stylistic characteristics — is a critical pricing axis. The appraiser would select comparables from the same medium, similar dimensions, and, where possible, the same period, weighting results from houses that regularly handle Hungarian and Central European art (Virág Judit, Koller, Nagyházi, Sotheby's) most heavily. All price references would be currency-normalized and time-adjusted. No catalogue raisonné is available, so authentication would rely on published dictionary entries (Bénézit, Thieme/Becker, Saur AKL) and, where feasible, museum or scholarly corroboration.

### Valuation factors

- Medium and support: oil on canvas commands a significant premium over watercolors, drawings, and prints. The auction data shows oil paintings routinely achieving tens to hundreds of thousands, while works on paper cluster below €3,200.
- Period and date: mature-period works from the 1920s and 1930s (Italian coastal scenes, figurative compositions) dominate the upper price tier; earlier works and undated pieces tend to sell for less.
- Subject matter: figurative compositions, nudes, and coastal or travel scenes (e.g., Alassio, Viareggio, Montmartre) appear to drive stronger results than landscapes or smaller studies.
- Dimensions: larger canvases generally outperform; smaller works on paper and studies sit in the lower price band.
- Condition and conservation history: given the age range (1867–1939), condition issues such as craquelure, relining, or fading in works on paper can materially affect value.
- Provenance and exhibition history: documented provenance through known collections or exhibition records strengthens both attribution confidence and price realization.
- Attribution certainty: absent a catalogue raisonné, works with full signature, clear documentation, or museum/exhibition history are valued more highly than attributions without corroborating evidence.
- Currency and saleroom: Hungarian-gallery results in HUF or EUR, Swiss-gallery results in CHF, and international-house results in EUR or GBP each reflect different buyer pools; cross-currency normalization is essential for comparable analysis.

### Collector notes

- Vaszary's auction market is most liquid in Budapest (Virág Judit, Nagyházi) and Zurich (Koller), with periodic appearances at Sotheby's and Christie's. If you are buying, focus on works with clear medium identification, legible signature, and — ideally — a date or period assignment, since these factors most clearly differentiate the wide price range. Works on paper by Vaszary are accessible at entry-level prices (hundreds to a few thousand euros), making them a reasonable starting point, but oil paintings from the 1920s–1930s carry the strongest premium and resale potential. If you are selling, consignment to a Central European specialist house (Virág Judit or Koller) may reach the most knowledgeable buyer pool for this artist. Activity has picked up recently (nine lots in the trailing 12 months), which may indicate a strengthening market. Always request a condition report and verify attribution through published references before committing to a significant purchase.

### Market caveats

- No catalogue raisonné exists for Vaszary, so attribution relies on reference-dictionary entries and scholarly or museum corroboration. Buyers and appraisers should exercise heightened due diligence on unsigned or undocumented works.
- The price distribution spans three orders of magnitude (€70 to €1,300,000), meaning broad 'average price' figures are unreliable for any individual work. Comparables must be filtered by medium, period, dimensions, and subject.
- Recent 12-month lot count (9) is a small sample; year-over-year comparisons should be treated cautiously.
- Auction results include multiple currencies (EUR, CHF, HUF, GBP, USD). Currency conversion at the time of sale may differ from current rates; time-adjusted normalization is recommended.
- The observed auction-house list includes regional and generalist houses alongside international names; results from generalist auctioneers with limited Hungarian-art specialization may reflect different buyer depth than specialist salerooms.
- Movement and stylistic-period context was not extractable from the available source excerpts, limiting the ability to assign works to specific phases of Vaszary's career without additional research.

### Market evidence sources

- undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/janos-vaszary/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-janos-vaszary-kaposvar-1867-budapest-1939-209-c-3ab4877441

## Appraisily data basis

This Appraisily artist page combines verified identity data from Getty ULAN, VIAF, the Library of Congress, and the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q829892
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Vaszary
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500004176
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/57420947/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n93018582
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/79519
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/39970
